DANIEL REARDON is the toast of Adelaide as he led a rare Open/Lites cleansweep for Kawasaki at the opening round of SUPERCROSS MASTERS at Wayville Showground, Saturday night.
The 20-year-old Queensland slammed down his first-ever Supercross Open victory -- it was his first appearance in the Open division -- and joined Lites class winner MITCHELL HOAD in the Kawasaki celebrations.
Reardon, who is not defending his 2005 Lites crown, now finds himself ahead of all the major contenders in the Open division which again incorporates the AUSTRALIAN SUPERCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP.
Reardon took top spot on the podium with a strong-finishing victory in moto 3 of the Opens... relegating Motorex KTM's TIMMY WEIGAND who took a perfect score through the first two moto finals only to encounter disaster in his third ride of the night.
Big names were left lamenting after a nightof explosive racing on the quirky Wayville track. The series points tally after round 1 sees defending champ TROY CARROL (Nokia/CDR Yamaha) scoreless, as is Suzuki hope DARYL HURLEY.
And Yamaha's MATT MOSS fared even worse -- down on points after his first two rides, he crashed out and was hospitalised with a suspected broken arm.
Carroll was dejected; he felt the track disadvantaged his two-stroke machine.
Weigand, the popular American having his first outing in Australian supercross -- and his first race meeting on a KTM -- experienced a bizarre evening.
He was a hapless non-qualifier in the Lites class -- caught up in someone else's accident -- then blasted back with a win in the Open qualifier final and then another two wins in the moto finals.
He led Reardon into the last point-scoring event with a margin of 7, after a dumb-founding conclusionto his second race.
Weigand faultered in the closing stutters section, sling-shotting himself over the win line with his bike concluding the journey by mere centimetres.
This same section of track brough his down-fall in the final race, too. He crashed out in this section and could not regain equilibrium in time to stave off the entire race field.
While Weigand struggled home in the 15-lapper to rescue 10 valuable points, Reardon ran his way right up to race leader, No Fear Honda's CRAIG ANDERSON, and then rode himself out of sight.
Rescuing honor for the Yamaha legion was Victorian CHEYNE BOYD, with a solid accumulation of points through his three rides.
"I'm delighted to make the podium. At this time of the year I'm usually fast -- fast to crash," he said.
Best for Suzuki was tall Kiwi LUKE BURKHART, fifth on the night behind Anderson who surrendered third place to Boyd by a single point.
HOAD proved a great off-season buy for Silkolene Kawasaki when he opened his night with a win.
A second placing in his next ride came after arch-rivals CAMERON TAYLOR and DANNY ANDERSON took each other out of second placing.
Then Hoad overcame a horror opening in the last start, storming back from near-last to grab enough points to shut Taylor out of victory.
Diggsy Anderson, now team-mate to brother Craig in the Honda factory squad, was more than satisfied with his third overall.
BEAU RALSTON was impressive in his decisive win over a big field in the Supercross Masters Junior Lites final.
TYE SIMMONDS and local prospect LUKE ARBON took 85cc honours.
Next round of SUPERCROSS MASTERS is slated for Perth, Western Australia, March 25.